Ertifferrah Written BY: Elay Understood CHAPTER 15 BALCONY OF DREAMS...Elay TV Content Creator

 

The day was going to be filled with peace and quiet. She had the entire mini-mansion for her own enjoyment, with the exception of the family Gardner. Innocent thoughts of getting back together with Octavious in her dream later, gave her hope that maybe she would one day fall in love, if not her in Akasha, then, there in her dreams. 

She was tired of not having someone to share and spend time with, although Lady Governess was a true confidant, Ertifferrah wanted more and needed more than her to talk to. “It’s not natural, it’s not normal.” She sadly thought.

Rummaging through her chest of drawers for a comfortable nightgown, the bedroom began to fill with steam from the running shower in her bathroom.

After the shower, she decided to take a stroll around the yard and peek at the new landscape as it was being laid out. On the soles of her bare feet, the grass tickled. It was a good day to laze about. With nothing more planned, she did just that-noting!  Plopping right down into the grass, she pushed her nose close to the cool earth and inhaled deeply. The smell of the soil relaxed the strain from around her eyes and brought the rest of her senses into focus, just as the sprinklers sprung up out of the ground and showered every inch of her body with cold water.

There wasn’t anything more for her to do but, laugh. “Great, there’s nothing like having two showers in the morning.” As she got up and walked, the dragging gown became soiled with each step she took, getting darker and darker. Not noticing that the garment was caught on one of the sprinkler-heads, she trudged back to the house. Each step becomes a little bit harder than the last, Ertifferrah walked on.

“Headed off a little early aren’t we?” The Gardner teased, seeing the gown tacked around the sprinkler.

“Ah, yes, I figured it was time. By the way, I just love those yellow Hypericums you planted near the pebble path!”

“Thank you Ertifferrah, that means a lot.” With a look of gratification on his face, he took a long gaze around the areas he recreated. “By the way, your gown’s caught on the sprinkler.” He said and continued working and whistling a song.

“I say, things are going rather swell,” she added arbitrarily while ripping the gown from the sprinkler where a rip in it had already begun. Maybe I should go back, fix myself some strawberry ice-cream, and just turn it in for the day. Mother wouldn’t be pleased if she found out I’ve been on my feet for too long, after all, Lady Governess ordered me to stay off my feet as much as possible; until I was well rested to attend school again. 

-But taking the potion seemed to have worked and Ertifferrah did feel ‘well-rested’ but, the plan Lady Governess intended was for her to be one-hundred percent recovered.

Out on the open balcony, Ertifferrah laid on the white marble floor that had black and cream swirls made into it. Eyes pacing left and right as she intently read the pages of a book her grandmother had given her upon the last visit.

It was filled with colorful images of open landscapes that grew freely; reaching out to the sun, branching away and around to a substantial sized well that was filled the dreams and possibilities of those who tossed coins in and wished for desires of the heart.

Her grandmother had always had a knack for choosing some of the most thoughtful gifts for Ertifferrah; which she showed that her grandmother really did understand and know who she was. Perhaps, had she not lived so far away, Ertifferrah would have someone else to talk to besides Lady Governess all of the time?

Ertifferrah stood up and walked back into the bedroom. She knelt in front of her bed that stood up high and slid partially underneath, pushing aside boxes filled with trinkets, small tablets, and pieces of mirror stashed in a silver tin. She continued pushing herself under the bed until she was able to put her hand around a white drawer her grandfather had given to her on her sixteenth birthday. HE made it himself and grandmother decorated it. They told her to keep her most prized possessions inside.

So far, she only had one object in it, and that was the talking book she had found in the Gift Room. Moving some of the boxes aside so she could better pull out the dresser, she plopped on the lush throw rug. Placing the drawer on her knees, she thought about her grandmother and what a great listener she was.

She returned outside to the marble balcony and leafed through several pages she had already filled with paragraphs, poems, and pictures. The brown book was a place of a private escape for her.

*

As the Hypericums folded, signifying the close of another day, Ertifferrah made ready for what she prayed to be a most blissful sleep.

*

In the dark, a violet glow radiated from the mixture inside the vial. “Take one capful,” she reminded herself. “Hummm I wonder, what would happen if I took…more?”   Imagining the consequences if she did indeed exceed the proper amount.  If the first cap made the dream feel sort of real..., how would it be with four...?  An image of Octavious flooding her head, without another thought, you guessed it, “bottoms up!”

A moment later, a blurred image flashed across her mirror! It was the woman from before! But, tonight, she looked more innocent than the mature image she saw of before. “What, no, no it couldn’t be? Maybe I shouldn’t have taken so much!” Ertifferrah said in a woozy panic. Rubbing her eyes, she somehow managed to smear some of the potions on them. The room spun and warped this way and that. “Wooaahh!” She exclaimed, realizing she wouldn’t make it to the bed. She staggered around in an attempt to avoid hitting the furniture, bracing herself as she collapsed, and dropping vial on the plush purple rug, where she now lay, face down, as the potion emptied out onto the floor.